Saddam's daughters win asylum

Jordan's King Abdullah II has granted asylum to Saddam Hussein's two eldest daughters and their nine children.

Jordanian information minister Nabil al-Sharif announced that the king issued an order admitting Raghd, 36, and Rana, 34, when they arrived from Baghdad yesterday.

"They are his majesty's guests for humanitarian reasons," Sharif said.

A palace official said the asylum offer by the pro-Western monarch was a traditional gesture of Arab hospitality. The daughters had sought refuge without success in Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

Their late husbands were Lieutenant General Hussein Kamel, who headed Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programmes for 10 years, and his brother Saddam Kamel.

The two men defected to Jordan in 1995, but decided to return to Baghdad in 1996. They were accused by Saddam's government of giving information about Iraq's weapons to the West and killed.

Other relatives of leaders in Iraq's former ruling Ba'ath party have found refuge in Amman in recent months, including the family of former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz.

Saddam's third and favourite daughter, Hala, is still in Iraq. Her husband, General Jamal Mustafa Tikriti, was arrested after the fall of Saddam on 9 April.